Less than a week after being raided by the Nanaimo RCMP, three dispensaries have reopened, and are vowing to defy police.

Anita Roy manages the Trees dispensary in Nanaimo, and says a crackdown by Mounties this week won’t keep her doors closed.

“We have reopened, out of defiance, as an act of civil disobedience. We are fully prepared to be arrested again. If I get arrested, then somebody else will take my place. And if they get arrested, somebody else will take their place in a Ghandi style.”

Roy says her dispensary follows strict rules, only selling marijuana products to people with valid medical reasons. She says keeping her shop open is a matter of rights, ensuring people in Nanaimo can buy medical marijuana in their own city — particularly when it’s available elsewhere on the Island.

“I’m 60 years old, what have I got to lose? I help so many people, you know I’m brought to tears when people come in and say ‘ you saved my life.’ What am I supposed to do, say I’m sorry, it’s not legal – you can go down to Victoria or Vancouver to get it?”

Roy says she’s careful to only sell to people with real medical issues.

Roy is also upset the police have chosen to crack down on them at at time when pot laws are in flux. She says with Ottawa pledging to legalize the drug, police are wasting time and resources trying to close them down.

“We understand perfectly well that it’s illegal technically. We’re also aware that the federal provincial and municipal governments are not against us, and have told us so. And the mayor of Victoria has even written a letter to Trudeau saying ‘What gives?'”

She says she’s spoken with all three dispensaries raided earlier this week, and they plan to defy police together.

Comments

It should be obvious by now the people hate places like Tilray, otherwise thousands of patients would b.e using Tilray instead of these dispensaries. The thing i hear is how Tilray has a courier deliver the products to your front door, only to leave it outside your front door even if your not home which means some kid is getting some ones medicine which is no different then selling to minors…

Excellent Nanaimo!,,Smoking Weed inhaling Pot into the lungs is to be recommended for everybody and should be encouraged by Mayor’s and Doctors everywhere. There are absolutely no negatives to this healthy pastime. You should introduce it to your young people at home and make it a happy family affair. All these naysayers that say lung damage or brain impairment may result don’t know what they are talking about.

The whole medical marijuana movement has been a trojan horse for full, unconditional legalization. Then as a kind of PR exercise, the dope for all crowd then want to pretend they want to “protect’ children from marijuana, which based on the experience in Colorado, is another sham. If marijuana is “perfectly safe” then why not sell it right by schools? Because they know that the public won’t buy it going in, but with full legalization there will be no rules.

The people who invested money in so called medicinal marijuana operations, like Tilray, have been scammed because the storefront pot shops operate without any of the regulations outfits like Tilray must comply with. These investors are called suckers because the buy your pot wherever you want crowd always planned to have it available to anyone anywhere. These pot shops are operating outside the law, and at one time the job of the police was to enforce the law. The dopers just want to get their dope wherever, so I say let Costco sell it, let 7-11 sell it. This won’t end well but most of us are sick of being lied to about this issue.